141 comments:

Here's my standard reminder... don't post the answer or any hints that could lead directly to the answer (e.g. via a chain of thought, or an internet search) before the deadline of Thursday at 3pm ET. If you know the answer, click the link and submit it to NPR, but don't give it away here.

You may provide indirect hints to the answer to show you know it, but make sure they don't give the answer away. You can openly discuss your hints and the answer after the Thursday deadline. Thank you.

In the solution that came to my mind, an article is lacking in one of the TV show titles. Moreover, if you initially complete the name of the company, then you need to insert not only the W and a couple spaces, but the same article in two different places, and then you get three consecutive titles of popular TV shows of the past!

Think of a third TV show of the past. The name of the show and the name of its lead character share a certain property, which is also shared by the name of the first TV show in the puzzle. Put the last name of the lead character of this third show in front of the name of the second TV show to name something of which the name of the first TV show is a part. (Is that convoluted enough for you?)

Whew! The company just came to me. I thought I could divine it from TV show names...oy very! Do THAT on wikipedia: mind-numbing and depressing!!! Went A-Z, thought Wings, and SWAT were good candidates...NOT!

Awesome bit of synchronicity for the week: last week I offered the correct answer to anyone who would promise to yell BABABOOEY during the on-air quiz, should their name be selected after using my answer.

This week, one of the TV shows in the answer was a topic of discussion on the Stern show...and the star of the show also talked about his old friendship with none other than Gary "Baba Booey" Dell'Abate himself.

I got up for a moment, read the new puzzle and went back to bed thinking this would be hard, but then I got the answer, and I swear I never even heard of one of these shows and never watched the other one. Now I can go back to bed again.

SDB – I don’t watch TV so like you I’ve never seen either show. At least I’d heard of one of them – for the other one I had to look on the Internet to see it there ever was such a show.

EAWAF – The missing article is an example of puzzletic license :) and in my opinion, much less worrisome than having to employ a Deus Ex Machina upside-down alarm clock to get the solution.

Last week over 1,800 correct answers were submitted. This represents quite an increase over recent submissions. I wonder if a substantial percentage of the increase occurred as a result of our good friend Harriet’s activities...

As David astutely noted at the end of last week’s thread, diner-puzzle creator Louis Sargent’s name contains all non-Y vowels exactly once, just like split pea soup. As Bob K. and WW noted nearby, the “alternative” answer Will mentioned today, “Hot Fluffy Pancakes,” contains two A’s and is blind to boot (that is, I-less).

I guess Will doesn’t need Harriets’s help in goosing his “correct entry (entrée?) count” (more than 1,400, this week, Chuck, if I heard it correctly) if he is willing to accept answers that fail to meet his puzzle’s diner/cafeteria criteria.

I think WW had it right, maybe it was “… pincakes.” No, neither pancakes nor pincakes is lapel-pin worthy.

Speaking of pancakes, I think I remember Dolly Parton winning the NPR puzzle challenge a few years back… When she received her puzzle books, games and other booty in the mail, what ensued was an instance of having to PIN LAPELS ROBUSTLY. Or maybe I just dreamt that.

Contestant and French native Gerard Jugant did pretty well with Will’s on-air challenge, especially for a guy who probably learned English as a second language. The riddle with which Mr. Jugant stumped both Ms. Martin and Dr. Shortz, happens to be my brother Mike’s favorite pun. I think he too learned it at age 4... and has been tormenting us with it ever since. He told it again two weeks ago. After the punch line “Un Deux Trois cat sank,” I responded with, “Cease!”

Adopting a new “anything-goes” puzzle entry policy? Getting stumped by a juvenile riddle? This was not Dr. Puzzlemaster’s finest hour, or rather 6 minutes and 28 seconds.

LegoAgneau (not to be confused with that guy who would have become the 38th U.S. Prez had he not been force to resign 10 months earlier)

The more I hear the “cat sank” riddle, the number and number I get. As for my brother Mike, he realizes his jokes/puns are obnoxious, and he doesn’t give a fig. His personalized license plate includes the word SAM, which stands for Smart Ass Mike!

Memo to Judge Ezekiel Creekiel:When it comes to pun-making, you are no slouch. Wait, on second thought, I shouldn’t sell yourself short, Judge, you’re a tremendous slouch!

Wheaties is not the best cereal selection if you aspire to be a breakfast-of-champion punster. Donkey Oaties are better; that’s what I used to serve Aunties Wendy and Mildred, and it tilted the scales in their pun-making favor.

Flavorful Wild Leek-Eye Oaties are Okay too but they might give you the runs, like a goose crossing the road. Run-inducing: bad! Pun-inducing: good! And the best pun-inducing cereal for my money is Kellogg’s Farm-Groan Cornies.

Bottom line, Judge Zeke, to become a true heavyweight punster start each day with a syrupy stack of hot blubbery puncakes. Or, as diner puzzle creator Loius Sargent might call them, “Hot Flippy Puncakes.” Or as they might be called by Will Shortz (a former “T-WOWS” major leaguer who this week has demoted himself to Double-A) “Hot Bigass Puncakes.”

(Two reference to “ass” in this post. Butt, that’s okay, right Blaine?)

The company still exists and has been around for a long time. So it's not something relatively recent a la Starbucks or Dell. Nor is it a defunct enterprise such as Borders, Studebaker, American Motors, Arco, Sohio, etc.

The company has a very rich history and has been involved in a number of businesses somewhat related to each other. It also has an indirect involvement with the two shows (and not just word structure). In fact, it has an even more direct involvement with the activities of one of them. Both the direct and indirect involvement would surprise many.

Finally, the company is big and everyone has heard of it,, Surprisingly, however, it's not on the Fortune 500! However, after you play around with many word combinations, you'll know when you have obtained the correct answer. You can be sure of that!

It made radios and TV's, among other things. which could pick up programs such as TWW and House if they were around then. Back then, you would have watched "Ozzie and Harriet" and "Perry Mason".

One of its other lines of business was broadcasting (Group W), which would cover the West Wing and other sources of news.

It exited the home appliance business many years ago, selling that line of business to White Consolidated Industries (who also acquired Frigidaire from GM) and used the brand "White Westinghouse" which itself is an anagram of Blaine's clue at the start of this blog.

What remains of Westinghouse itself post-CBS and post-audio/TV and appliances is now largely owned by Toshiba--hence, it not being part of the Fortune 500 under its own name.

Finally, in the mid-60's, it pioneered a device we take for granted now--the Instant On TV (its brand name). No longer would you have to wait for the TV to warm up to hear and see what's on TV. I recall Consumer Reports saying at the time that this would add $7 per year to your electric bill.

Lego,Actually I don't think I saw it. I just now put it on reserve at the library and will watch it. I am generally not a fan of Hollywood movies. I really like the DVD cover however, as I just a month ago purchased a tuxedo. Do you think I should wear it as I watch the movie? If so, I think I will tie the tie a bit on the loose side.

Regarding your above “As I posted above,” post:Either you think you are RoRo, or you really are a prophet! (Lego: “How did that Blainesvilla-est-patria-Nostra-damn rascal know in advance that I wanted his opinion on “Diner”?!”)

Yes, sdb, you should wear your tuxedo, but only if you watch the Diner DVD on your home entertainment system at your upscale mansion while dining on Casu Marzu and Foie Gras washed down with a split of Spanish red absinthe. In your tux you’ll look spiffy…

Spiffy, that is, in your mug shot after the narks bust you for possession and ingestion of black-market contraband dinner, yelling as they cuff you, “Consider this your last meal, Penguin Boy!”

Your tie? Yeah, you can wear it loose. It’ll tighten up soon enough when they replace it with a necktie noose!

Or, a better alternative: Shuck the tux. Dress casual. Your clothes (tie optional) can fit you loose. Grab your portable DVD player and Diner DVD. Shuffle down to Lego’s Crossroads Diner. Make eye-contact with the patrons. Smile. Settle into a booth. Flirt with Fern, the waitress.

You order Mud: Creamy, Frothing and Eggs Poachy w/Muffins, a new breakfast entrée prepared jointly by diner chefs Word Woman and Paul. (We serve breakfast 24/7 at Lego’s.) You thank Fern with a wink as she brings your order. You make cordial small talk with the couple in the booth across from you. You start to fetch your DVD player from your satchel but then think better of it and keep it tucked away.

Before long, your magnetic aura lures fellow diners from counter stools and other booths. Fern takes an early break and saunters over to your booth with the others, all telling stories and jokes, laughing, bantering, punning, kidding. The chefs, curious about the resounding conviviality, suspend their culinarity, taking five to join in on the frivolity. You compliment them on their Eggs Poachy w/Muffins. The woman chef with a wink and a smirk replies, “It was nuffin’.”

You invite them to sit. Fern slides in next to you, grazing your arm with her hand as she says, “Thanks, Honey.” You tell them one of your best original jokes. Most laugh, Fern the loudest. “They got it!” you think.

As you reluctantly leave in a flurry of handshakes and hugs, you drop a ten-spot tip on the table for Fern. You make a mental note to come back next Sunday, maybe for brunch. Those Hot Crusty Pastries on the menu looked pretty darn scrumptious.

Good idea. Isn't that how Margaret Thatcher and the Brits won their war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands? They had the superior Harriet fighter planes. I remember so clearly how she made statements about how they were sending their Harriets to triumph over the invaders.

You are correct. Prince Harry at first did fly the inferior Harriers, and with a terrier on his lap, no less! But the Harriers were hairier, similar to the terrier, and soon were replaced by the "hit and run" Harriets, as they were termed by their merrier Pilots and crews.

About 35 years ago, I was at an airshow at Reading, PA. I was wandering around on the grass between a taxiway and runway, when I spotted a military jet on short final. It flew a normal approach, maybe a bit high, but surreally got gradually slower and slower instead of lower and lower, until it was just hovering on a pillar of pure noise pretty much right next to me, gracefully knelt on the runway, and then taxied off like any other plane. Harriers are very cool.

SDB I love Andre' He can knock my sock off while playing Rachmaninoff (sp?) Any way, he grew up practically next door to my cuz but his mother would not let him out to play with us. Guess we were not tame enough for him

I just now returned. He wore white tie & tails. (I could tell immediately it was a custom job and cost several thousand.) He was absolutely outstanding, except for when he sat down to play, of course. Here is the program, not including encore I did not recognize. He played everything from memory without sheet music.

I regularly attend performances here in Seattle of the most talented pianists in the world and Watts is the most consummate professional I can recall. I am sure he has performed at the White House, but I don't see that as being as much in indication of his abilities as all his other achievements. The WH simply invites whomever the resident idiot happens to enjoy. Watts has performed "before royalty in Europe and heads of government in nations all over the world." That quote is from the program.

Debussy: Estampes is one of my all time favorites. You really should explore it if you enjoy Classical music.

SDBPart of my banter was for the bloggers. I enjoy a variety of music and go to the BSO (Balto. Symphony orch ) for the classical and the pops offerings. Like last season went to see Andre and the Music of Star trek. Love it all!

sdb,Speaking of ears (but not earwax, and not rabbit ears, be they on rabbits or on 1950s-era television sets), I would like to put the following bug in your ear: VW bugs do so have ears!

The following story is true, not bosh, baloney and balderdash like most of my stories: The summer before my senior year in college I purchased my first car, a 1954 Volkswagen Beetle, for $54 ($50 plus tax) from a Wisconsin farmer. It was stored in his dairy barn. Its headlights were dimmer than flashlights with moribund batteries. I could not drive it after dusk.

While driving it to college in late August (fraught with my bicycle on its roof and dorm room-destined belongings in its front trunk and on seats) I needed to negotiate a two-mile 10-degree grade on Interstate-94, speed limit 65 mph. By the time I reached the crest I was straining to keep it above 15 mph had been passed by about 200 beeping vehicles containing 200 bleeping drivers. (I read lips.)

It wasn’t a case of “Rabbit Redux” (or “Ducks Rerabbits”) by John Updike. It was more like “The Little Engine that Could, Redux” by my Bug’s “What’s Up Doc?” And I mean barely could.

Two months later I encountered another “negotiating challenge.” Driving back to school from an errand one morning, I dozed off briefly only to awake to an imminent head-on collision with a university shuttle bus on a curve. I jerked the wheel clockwise, overcorrecting and somehow missing the bus by a few angstroms, and rolled my bug over into the roadside ditch. Those things can really roll; they’re like cue balls on wheels and steroids, or like wiener dogs before they play dead.

An ambulance hauled me to the hospital. A wrecker hauled my totaled beetle to the salvage yard.

Oh, yes, I almost forgot. The bug’s ears. The two cutest, most charming features on the VW, what I most miss, were its defroster and blinkers. Its “defroster” was a dashboard-mounted tiltable table fan, roughly the size of a bagel.

Like normal, cars the bug had front and rear blinkers situated near the headlights and taillights. But it also sported darling mechanical “semaphore-like” blinkers, each situated on the door frame post separating the two side windows.

They were normally flush with the frame, but when you activated your blinker one of them would flip out perpendicular to the frame, like the leg o’ an over-the-hill Rockette attempting a high kick.

Or, to shift semaphore metaphors, the blinkers “perked up,” reminiscent of the EARS of a stalking cat or a hunting dog detecting the high-frequency scrabbling of a mouse or rustling of a grouse, respectively.

Dear Legoears,Those are called Traficators. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TrafficatorsI do not recall them being on VWs, although I came very close to purchasing a 1957 Bug when I was living in Wurzburg, Germany in the early/mid 1960's.They were popular in GB in the 1950's on Royal Royce and Bentley saloons, and I have personal experience driving them here in Seattle. (It pays to have wealthy friends you can talk into purchasing for themselves the toys you cannot afford and then letting you use them at will.) As I recall the earlier VWs had six cell batteries. Hitler's Revenge we called them back then.

Thanks for building my vocabulary. I was unaware of Trafficator. (It must be a portmanteau word formed by traffic + indicator.)

Wikipedia, normally impeccably infallible, somehow failed to mention that the inventor of the Trafficator was none other than James Traficant, erstwhile U.S. representative from Ohio, and jailbird. He got the idea from all the flip-flopping he did while in Congress.

You are a veritable font (Franklin Gothic or Showcard Graphic, I think) of fun facts! For, example, your nugget about the early Beetles being popular in the Royal Royce and Bentley Saloons. Were those in Hamburg, Liverpool, Manchester, London? I knew the mop-topped lads hung out at the Cavern Club in Liverpool and Indra Club in Hamburg, but I was unaware of these venues.

jan and WW,Don’t remember my VW having the spare-tire-powered windshield washer feature. I’m not even sure it had a spare tire. But I did. I washed the bug right after I got it. I recall that while leaning across the hood to sponge-rub the far side of the roof I inadvertently washed a section of the windshield with the soapy T-shirt covering my gut.

There. That enticing image should put you off patronizing bikini carwashes for life!

Yes, I too wonder why the term saloon is used by the Brits to describe those large automobiles the rest of us can only afford to lust after. They are indeed a moveable feast, at least for the eyes.

As to the VW wipers being activated via air from the spare tire, perhaps you are unaware of the rationing of air during mid-century Germany. That of course was not true for the Reichstag, where hot air was plentiful.

I remember driving through the heart of Rome in 1972 during heavy rush hour where the Traficant be described adequately.

David, I’m pretty sure I know your grandfather’s rabbit joke. It does have an Elmer Fudd element to it (which, judging from jan’s subsequent post, leads me to infer that he also knows your joke). I didn’t hear it from a grandfather. (Both my grandfathers had taken residence in their final resting place ere I was born.) I think I read it in Boy’s Life magazine (not to be confused with that other magazine with a rabbit logo that prints jokes and has a “Boy” in its title). (one NPR puzzle hint in this paragraph)

Speaking of rabbits, and rabbits in movies with “Roger” in their title (no, not “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”), I cannot watch Michael Moore’s “Roger and Me” all the way through because of the rabbit scene near the end.

Speaking of grousing (as I did in the above post), I will not grouse about this week’s puzzle. Indeed, I deem it actually pretty good. I think Will’s on a roll, like the pats of melting margarine we set out on our counter and booths at Lego’s Crossroads Diner. (What’s that? You loathe oleo? Butter take your grousing and buzziness elsewhere.)

Three hints follow: The company’s management, especially a score-or-so years ago, shares something in common with me. Its logo shares something in common with an original visual element of Word Woman’s excellent and entertaining PEOTS blog (which if you haven’t yet checked out, you should).

I got to thinking about Trafficator and how Brits from some of the lower classes tend to drop H's in their speech. Now, if you do this with "traffic hater" you end up with Trafficator. Am I on to something here?

I will confess to having some nice Spanish red wine with my dinner this evening, but never have done the weed, although I have always been a strong advocate of making it legal. (Not the dinner; the weed.)

> Think of a third TV show of the past. The name of the show and the name of its lead character share a certain property, which is also shared by the name of the first TV show in the puzzle. Put the last name of the lead character of this third show in front of the name of the second TV show to name something of which the name of the first TV show is a part.

Breaking Bad -> Walter White -> White House

> And the actor who played that lead character in the third show is now playing someone famous for his role in the thing named by the first show.

Bryan Cranston is playing LBJ, formerly of the West Wing, in All The Way on Broadway.

> Turns out there's just one degree of separation between me and one of the TV shows.

Dr. Lisa Sanders was an advisor to the House, MD show. She also writes a monthly column, Think Like a Doctor, in The New York Times, in which she presents a puzzling medical case and invites readers to submit their diagnosis (and sometimes identify the test that would clinch the diagnosis). The first reader to come up with the right answer gets a signed copy of her book, Every Patient Tells a Story. A few years ago, I was the first to submit the correct diagnosis one month, so I have an autographed copy of Dr. Sanders' book.

> A very famous competitor of this company wanted its name to be used as a verb.

Thomas Edison, a proponent of DC electric power distribution, wanted to emphasize the dangers of Westinghouse's AC system. When AC current was chosen for the first electric chair, Edison pushed for the Westinghouse name to be used to label the gruesome process.

> Musical clue: Alice's Restaurant.

Group W was the radio and TV broadcasting division of Westinghouse Electric Corporation. And a bench at the Selective Service System induction center on Whitehall Street for people who may not be moral enough to join the Army, burn women, kids, houses and villages after bein' a litterbug.

My Grandfather’s joke, which many of you seem to know, goes something like this:

A man opened his refrigerator door and saw a rabbit inside. The man said, “Wabbit, what are you doing in my wefwigewatow?” The rabbit said, ”First, you tell me what kind of refrigerator this is.” The man said, “A Westinghouse”. The rabbit said, “I’m just westing”.

The man could have been Elmer Fudd, as implied by many commenters, but that was not how he told the story. Also, thanks (?) to Hugh, I now know who Barry Kripke is.

Explaining myself:LegoAgneau ought not be confused with Spiro Agnew, Dick Nixon’s first VP, who would have become the 38th U.S. Prez had he not been forced to resign 10 months before Nixon resigned.

I didn’t know David’s rabbit/fridge joke after all. My joke, I think from Boy’s Life magazine has an Elmer Fudd element to it but, unlike David’s joke, not a clue to this week’s puzzle answer. My joke:

Little Johnny (Elmer Fudd-like) was having difficulty pronouncing his R’s. His father told him to practice by reciting the following sentence: “Richard gave Robert a rap in the ribs for roasting the rabbit so rare.” The next day, curious about how he was progressing, Johnny’s dad asked him to repeat the sentence. So Johnny said, “Dick gave Bob a poke in the side for not cooking the bunny enough.”

Three hints follow: 1. The company’s management, especially a score-or-so years ago, shares something in common with me. (Paul Lego served as Westinghouse CEO from 1990 to 1993.)

2. Its logo shares something in common with an original visual element of Word Woman’s excellent and entertaining Partial Ellipsis Of The Sun blog. (The three bold blue circles crowning the W in the Westinghouse logo resemble the bold ellipsis partially obscuring the sun in WW’s original PEOTS illustration.)

3. You know what honeybees say before returning to their hive… (“We sting” placed before “hive,” which is a bee’s “house.” We sting + house = Westinghouse.)

I failed to explain the hint I embedded in my paragraph to David regarding his rabbit joke, which involved pronouncing Rs as Ws, like Elmer Fudd. I mentioned that “both my grandfathers had taken residence in their final RESTING PLACE ere I was born.”

Resting, spoken in “Fuddese<“ would be Westing; a house is a place. Westing + house = Westinghouse.

In the solution that came to my mind, an article is lacking in one of the TV show titles. Moreover, if you initially complete the name of the company, then you need to insert not only the W and a couple spaces, but the same article in two different places, and then you get three consecutive titles of popular TV shows of the past!

I live in North-West Baltimore and you can't be certain about anything in these neck of the woods" a hint at Westinghouse Electric being taken over by Northrop-Grumman here in Baltimore. Yes, Lego, seen and enjoyed "Diner"

Thanks, RoRo, for responding. I liked it too, especially the Baltimore Colts Trivia Challenge at the end. I’ve never been to Baltimore but I’ve heard it’s an interesting city.

An intriguing link about emoticons, “emoti-pros” and poetry that Word Woman included in the fourth post on this week’s PEOTS blog reminded me of the tri-dotty Westinghouse logo.

Her emoticon link led me to think that Seventeenth Century poet Robert Herrick might have been a pioneering emoticonner who peppered his manuscripts with punctuation that resembled sideways Westinghouse logos.

Then a friend alerted me to a logo link that shows illustrations that make the Westinghouse “W” appear both emoticonny and Rorschachy simultaneously. It also shows a picture not of a cyclops but of a human “triclops”! (That’s the “pretty out-there stuff about the W logo being a face with a third eye” to which Word Woman refers in an above post.)

The Westinghouse logo was created in 1959 by hotshot graphic designer Paul Rand (who, I think, is now a bilertarian lopitician representing Tuckenny.) That link calls the logo “fresh looking,” but I’ve always found it a tad antiquated...

But not as antiquated as the regional electricity provider logo that I grew up with, usually accompanied in TV commercials with the ubiquitous jingle “Electricity is penny cheap from NSP to Youuu!”

“You guys are trying your darndest to kill the enjoyment of these puzzles!” – It has been reputed that signs have been placed in the vicinity of some electric chairs stating “You can be sure if it’s Westinghouse.”

“Gimme a break!” – George Westinghouse was the inventor of a highly successful air brake for railroad trains.

Others have also alluded to these Westinghouse connections in their clues.

If you originally finish the name of the organization, then you need to place not only the W and a several areas, but the same content in two different locations, and then you get three successive headings of well-known TV reveals of the past.